A massive shakeup of train timetables has led to passengers facing delays and cancellations.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) – which operates Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express services – has brought in one of the largest rail timetable overhauls in UK history, which came into effect on Sunday (May 20).

GTR warned passengers to expect disruption during the first few days of its implementation and by 4.30pm on Monday (May 21) the operator saw 160 cancellations (7% of the schedule) and 213 delays (12%).

A GTR spokesman said: "We are introducing the biggest change to rail timetables in a generation and, as we have been informing passengers, we expect some disruption to services in the initial stages.

"This is a significant logistical challenge as we make rolling incremental changes across more than 3,000 daily services."

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But as we can see from the tweets below, many were not satisfied by the warning of initial disruption.

Twitter user @AllAboutSteve_ said: "Dear @TLRailUK I’ve gone from getting a seat nearly every time to having to stand for over an hour in this hell. Your new timetable is rubbish and needs to be sorted out immediately.

"Not only does my train now arrive 10 minutes earlier, it also gets me home later."

@AllAboutSteve_ tweeted a photo of an incredibly tracked phone carriage along with his tweet. It shows several passengers standing as a result of being unable to find a seat.

But not everyone was upset with the new timetable. Twitter user John Monks congratulated Thameslink for their new timetable, describing it as a "massive achievement".

He tweeted: "Contrary to predictions of twitter catastrophists, sparkling new Thameslink Cambridge to Brighton train pulled out on time with plenty of room! Well done all at Thameslink - a massive achievement...door to door to Blackfriars for me. Perfect."

The changes are part of a £7 billion Government-sponsored Thameslink Programme to invest in the railways and improve capacity into the capital.

On the new timetable anyone travelling from East Croydon is due to see four times as many services to Blackfriars during peak morning hours.

Thameslink is introducing two new services from East Croydon to its current schedule, with two trains per hour going to Peterborough and one to Cambridge every day.

There will also be an increase to two trains per hour from East Croydon for anyone heading to Reigate, and an increase to five trains per hour for people travelling to Brighton.

Norwood Junction is also set to get an increase in services.

It will gain an all-day-long Thameslink service to Bedford, which stops at Blackfriars and St Pancras.

West Croydon will benefit from an extra service to Epsom as part of the shake-up.

Before the overhaul, Steve Chambers, a public transport campaigner made his own prediction of how the timetable would go.

He said: "When people return to work after a weekend of Royal Wedding celebrations they could have a nasty surprise when they see their train is no longer running at its usual time due to unexpected timetable changes.

“These changes are a culmination of many years of investment and planning. They need to come into force, and many passengers will see benefits from the big timetable changes, with more and longer trains. But some are going to lose out - and we're concerned that the rail industry isn't using up to date technology to talk to its users, alert them to changes coming and get their views.

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“As a result, many passengers will find their normal trains have changed and could be left stranded. In addition, in some areas, delays to works on the tracks, such as electrification, will mean services getting worse, even though eventually the works will mean better services.

“The rail industry needs to get better at communicating changes to passengers, and start the process early by involving communities and users in shaping their services. We need to see the introduction of long promised smart tickets across the rail network holding personalised information which can notify passengers of changes to their journey, as used successfully by C2C trains.